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Public Notice
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Ottawa, 13 August 1992
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Public Notice CRTC 1992-53
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PRIVATE FRENCH-LANGUAGE TELEVISION
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Preamble to decisions CRTC
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I.INTRODUCTION
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At a public hearing commencing on 23 March 1992, the Commission considered the licence renewal applications of the private sector French-language television networks as well as those of most of the invidivual stations. The hearing was divided into two sessions: in Montréal, the networks and mother stations were heard, and at Quebec City, the regional stations. The Commission also considered the licence renewal applications announced in Public Notice CRTC 1992-7 issued in January 1992.
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The hearing provided an opportunity to assess the performance of one of the major components of the Canadian broadcasting system. In its evaluation, the Commission paid particular attention to each station's financial performance, programming and its response to complaints from the public received during the current licence term.
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With respect to the licensees' plans for the new licence term, the Commission assessed the role each intends to play within its market in broadcasting Canadian programs that respond to the needs and interests of its audience. The Commission also sought to establish how the proposed programming would meet the objectives of the Canadian broadcasting policy, particularly the objective that such programming should reflect the circumstances and aspirations of Canadian men, women, and children, and should be varied, drawing from local, regional, national and international sources. In addition, the Commission discussed with the applicants their strategy for responding to changing market conditions.
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In this regard, the Commission noted an industry tendency towards retrenchment, centralization of operations and restraint, as indicated by a reluctance to make future commitments. The Commission recognizes that the poor financial results of the past years and the uncertain economic climate do not constitute a favourable context for a review of licence renewal applications. In these circumstances, the Commission has decided to renew most licences of the private television stations for a period of no more than 5 years to allow for an early review of the situation.
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II. THE CONCEPT OF LOCAL REFLECTRON
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The hearing and the applications themselves revealed that, in the period sincþ publication of the Policy for Local Television Programming (Public Notice CRTC 1991-22), the private French-language television industry has tended to opt for a restrictive interpretation of the policy, described by some interveners as minimalist. The Commission therefore considers it useful to clarify its current policy on local television programming.
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1. News category
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In its policy, the Commission stated that licensees, at renewal, would be evaluated on how successfully local needs have been met. With this proposed new emphasis on local reflection, the Commission decided that it would no longer require television licensees to make quantitative commitments to local programming in categories other than news. In this regard, the Commission notes that the cuts private television broadcasters are máking in their budgets because of their financial results are affecting their news programming. In its intervention, the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists points out that the public's knowledge of local events helps shed light on the patterns that form the basis of any truly democratic way of life. Noting recent changes in the quantity of information available in a number of regions in Quebec, the Commission calls upon French-language television broadcasters to make every effort to ensure that the public is better informed of current events within their service area.
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2. Other program categories
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The Commission's policy on local television programming states that each television licensee has a special responsibility to serve the public residing within the particular geographic area it is licensed to serve.
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In the Commission's view, programming cannot completely reflect the community if it is limited to only brief news clips. A number of interveners offered evidence of this fact. The Commission considers that the public debate should be enriched by presenting and discussing complex issues on public affairs programs; and that the cultural life could be enhanced by enabling locally-based talent to benefit not only from promotion, but from on-air television exposure as well. Accordingly, when economically feasible, variety programming should also be produced regionally for broadcast on regional stations and/or on the networks.
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The aim of the Commission's policy on local programming is not to centralize production of programs that could be produced anywhere, but is intended to ensure that most local and regional programming serves, first and foremost, the public living in a station's coverage area and that intra-regional communication is preserved.
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3. Scheduling Practices
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In its policy, the Commission stated that it would continue to require television licensees to describe how their program schedules reflect the needs and concerns of the communities they serve.
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At the hearing, the Commission noted a tendency on the part of regional stations to broadcast programming devoted to local reflection at times other than peak viewing hours. Inasmuch as it is the networks that generally control the opportunities for the distribution of local programs, the Commission considers that they should be sensitive to this situation and ensure that such programs can be broadcast at times convenient to the viewers.
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Even though news programs are generally broadcast at popular viewing times, the Commission considers that depending on the size of the region, regional news headlines should also be broadcast during peak viewing hours, in addition to late night and weekend regional newscasts.
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III. DUBBING
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Since 1987, the dubbing of television programs (generally American) into French has emerged as an issue of greater importance among Canadian performers. Currently, as a consequence of agreements between the major television networks in France and unions of French artists, most dubbing from English to French is performed in that country.
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In a letter dated 12 September 1988 to the Chairman of the CRTC, the Deputy Minister of the federal Department of Communications requested that the Commission establish a consultative committee to review the matter. The Commission tabled its report on 18 May 1989 and subsequently announced that the matter would be raised at the public hearings for the licence renewals of French-language stations and networks. At the hearing, the Union des Artistes requested the Commission to establish minimum requirements for programming dubbed in Canada, comparable to the current Canadian content requirements.
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The Commission considers that quotas would be ineffective; specifically, they could have a negative effect on the production of original Canadian programs, since funds for Canadian programming would be diverted to dubbing. In addition, such a measure would constitute excessive regulation and would be economically inefficient since many programs already dubbed in France would be dubbed a second time in Canada.
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The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by placing emphasis on Canadian program production through promotion of investment in such programs, rather than on the dubbing of non-Canadian programs. Consequently, it will not impose any dubbing quotas.
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IV. INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
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At the hearing, the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec (APFTQ) presented a submission arguing that the Commission should require licensees to allocate a portion of their programming budgets to the association. The APFTQ based its argument on paragraph 3.(i)(v) of the Broadcasting Act, which states that the programming provided by the Canadian broadcasting system should "include a significant contribution from the Canadian independent production sector".
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The Commission notes that Télévision Quatre-Saisons allocates most of its production budget to independent productions, whereas Télé-Métropole allocates a much smaller portion to this sector given the size of its own production facilities. In the past, the Commission has encouraged television broadcasters to work actively with the independent production sector and has often emphasized commitments of licensees regarding the levels of programming from that sector in their schedules. Given the success already achieved by these measures at various levels, the Commission does not consider it necessary to set quotas in this area. The Commission, however, views as unacceptable the failure of some licensees to make any commitments, even if it is only the continuation of cooperative efforts with the independent sector. Consequently, certain of the decisions that follow contain expectations in this regard.
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V. CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING
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In Quebec, some provincial restrictions may limit the availability of funding for children's programming. For example, there is a prohibition against advertising to children. Consequently, owners of private French-language television networks refuse to produce and broadcast new Canadian children's programming.
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The Commission rejects the notion that licensees of over-the-air television stations - traditionally the source of broad, general interest programming - should be permitted to abandon whole segments of their audience because they do not generate sufficient profits. The Canadian broadcasting system is made up of public, private and community elements. To date, public (the CBC) and private television have shared responsibility for ensuring that programming is varied and as comprehensive as possible.
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The Commission views as unacceptable that over-the-air television undertakings should seek to delegate responsibility for the production and provision of children's programming, a less profitable area, to certain specialty services. Slightly more than 30% of the population of Quebec does not receive specialty services. The Commission will therefore expect the private television networks to broadcast, on a regular basis, new Canadian children's programming that reflects the concerns and aspirations of young "Québécois". Moreover, since Canadian children's programs are generally less violent than many foreign programs, their development and broadcast becomes a means of combatting television violence.
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VI. TELEVISION VIOLENCE
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Since 1985, violence in programming has been the main source of complaints made by Quebec residents to the Commission about television.
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On 27 May 1992, the Commission published an internal report entitled "Scientific Knowledge about Television Violence" and an external report entitled "Summary and Analysis of Various Studies on Violence and Television". At that time, the Commission indicated that it would continue to require that Canadian television broadcasters deal with this issue, specifically by implementing, without delay, an industry code on violence.
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VII. ACCESS TO TELEVISION BY PERSONS WITH VISUAL OR HEARING IMPAIRMENTS
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The Québec Center for the Hearing Impaired, the Canadian Captioning Development Agency, the Regroupement québécois pour le sous-titrage and the Canadian Disability Rights Council made a joint presentation at the public hearing. They requested that the number of hours of captioned programming be increased each year so that all programs would be captioned by year 2000. The interveners also addressed the quality of captioning in French-language programming by presenting a video recording to demonstrate their point. In particular, the interveners requested:
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- that the use of a live captioning method recently perfected by the CBC be promoted, thus improving the captioning quality and quantity and reducing the unit price;
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- that improvements be made in services available to publicize captioned programs by avoiding such occurrences as announcing the captioning of programs which, in fact, have not been captioned; by announcing changes in the scheduling of captioned programs; and by better promoting the scheduling of captioned programs; and
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- that the industry implement a descriptive video system for the visually impaired.
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Most of the renewal applications under consideration reflect no improvement in the measures taken to provide the visually or hearing impaired with better access to television.
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Given the current social and technological context, and consistent with the approach taken in its decisions of 6 April 1989 renewing the licences of 76 English-language television stations, the Commission has required local and regional stations, as a minimum, to provide captioning or sign-language interpretation for the headline portion of their local news programs.
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The Commission will expect mother stations to increase the number of hours of captioned programming provided from year to year, and to submit reports to the Commission on the increase, in particular, on the measures taken to publicize program changes and announce new captioned programs.
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In addition, the Commission will monitor the technological development and implementation of a descriptive video system for the visually impaired and other improvements such as live captioning. Finally, the Commission has required that television broadcasters acquire a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), and that the telephone number be well publicized and listed in the local telephone directory.
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VIII. CONCLUSION
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French-language television viewers have demonstrated a marked preference for Canadian programs produced in Quebec. Since the early days of the industry, broadcasters have offered a large amount of Canadian programming because of public demand. Under the circumstances, the Commission does not consider it necessary to apply a formula, as it has imposed on English-language television stations, for the purpose of ensuring Canadian program expenditures.
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The conditions of licence, expectations and incentives described in the licence renewal decisions that follow are designed so that all licensees will strive to find new means of improving the service they provide to their francophone audience in Quebec.
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The Commission thanks the interveners for their extremely valuable contribution to this public hearing.
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Related documents: Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 1992-2 dated 22 January 1992; Public Notice CRTC 1991-22 dated 15 February 1991; Public Notice CRTC 1992-7 dated 20 January 1992; Public Notice CRTC 1989-27 dated 6 April 1989; Decision CRTC 90-69 dated 1 February 1990 and Decision CRTC 90-625 dated 29 June 1990; CRTC news release dated 27 May 1992.
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Allan J. Darling
Secretary General
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